Four Months in....

Wow. Today marks the day that I have been married to my husband for four months. It seems like just a second ago that we met and were getting to know each other, when I was so carefree and enjoying my college years. Now I have a Master's degree, a big girl job, bills, and a marriage. I have spent the past four months learning, working through life's challenges, and making decisions with my best friend.

What a blessing this is from the Lord, to have someone to walk through this life with, to step into the adult world beside me, someone who encourages me to seek out my dreams and who believes in me. These past few months have been difficult and confusing, but it has been such a gift to share those trying times with my husband.

Sometimes I get lost in thought wondering where in the world I left childhood, just being a kid and a teenager, into being an adult. Time passes so fast. There is no slowing it down, no stopping it. Routine takes over and before I can blink weeks are flying past me.

Today is not only my four month anniversary of marriage, but it is my precious niece's first birthday. It has been one year since that day she entered the world and changed our family's world. When did I become old enough to be an aunt?? It is so crazy to me that my parents are grandparents and that my brother now has a one year old. This is what I mean by "when did we become grown-ups?" Talking with my little brother last night was a reminder of our childhood, just yesterday it seems my two brothers and I were having adventures "exploring" the woods and playing in mud and riding our bikes up and down the driveway. Now we are buying birthday presents for the next generation of Netterville's.

The challenge for me in all of this is not to attempt to slow time down, (that would be a lost cause), but to begin to slow my mind and my busy-ness down enough to enjoy the beauty in these moments. Yes I am ready to get settled into a house and for my husband and I to "find our place" in this world, but why rush through these months that I am blessed with right now? Eventually, these days of rushing back and forth to work and coming home to our tiny apartment and watching TV on our one hand-me-down couch will be distant memories that we think back over and smile. Addie will be a teenager before we know it and all we will have to remember her first birthday will be pictures.

So when did I become a grown-up? I am not really sure what that means. I think that growing up is a continuous part of life that will not stop simply because I am now married, an aunt, and working 40 hour weeks. The real question is, when will I begin to slow down the rush that is my life long enough to take in the blessings that surround me? The time is now. Living for the past or living for the future... I don't know if those are really options. Living for right now? That is the real challenge.